Bottle-seal.



G. WINTER.

BOTTLE SEAL.

APPLIOA TION FILED APILZS, 190s.

Patented Nov. 24, 1908.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFI E CHARLES WINTER, OF NEW YoRigN. Y.,ASsIeNoR'To STAR SEAL 0011mm conrofwrion.

-. OF NEW YORK. A

BOTTLE-SEAL county of Kings, and State of New York,

have invented certain new and useful Imrovements in Bottle-Seals, ofwhich the ollowlng is a specification, reference being i had to thedrawings accompanying and forming a part of the same.

My invention relates to bottle seals of that special variety known asinside seals, and the object of my invention is to provide a seal whichwill 'be perfectly tight against both outside air and inside pressure,but at the same time readily removable without the use of a specialimplement or opener.

Many attempts have been made to produce a commer ial inside seal byproviding a groove of some sort in the inside of the neck. .of thebottle and expanding a piece of metal into this groove, either by thespring and elasticity of the metal or by pressure applied to it. Theobjection to all of these, however, has been that. if the grip of themetal in the groove is sufficient to make the seal perfectly tight, thenthe force required to extract the seal is such as to necessitate the aidof a special tool or implement to overcome the grip. To overcome thisobjec- 7 tion, I so arrange the gripping portion of my metal piece thatit is divided into a number of sections which unite in holding in thegroove, and to some or all of these sections I attach means whereby thegripping power of each of these particular sectlons may be destroyed orovercome independently and without materially affecting the grip of theother sections. As the independent gripping power of each section issmall, it may be overcome Without the aid of any special tool,

and inpractice I find that it can be done with the fingers alone. "Whena sufficientnumber of the sections have. been released, the seal may: bereadily removed hand. Broadly considered, therefore, my inventionconsists in dividing the gripping portion of r the seal into anumber ofpractically independent sections and providing some or all of thesesections with meansby which the Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed April 23, 1908. Serial No. 428,831.

a and economy ma sealing seat.

gripping power of one or more sections'may be independently overcome- AIn the'drawin s, Figure 1 is a central vertical section of the neck of abottle hav-fi-s ing a groove of the preferred shape; Fig.2

is a similar view with the seal seated therein,

but before pressure has been applied; -Fig.3 is a similar view withthe-seal pressed into its sealing position, but before-the opening :1tongues are folded into 't'h'eir preferred position; Fi 4 is a similarview with the seal in its fina position; Fig.;5is a perspective view ofthe preferred form of seal; and'Fig. {3 is a lan of the blank froin whieh the seab -ii :5 ma e.

In these drawings, 1 is thene'ck of avbottle having an annularroovE-Q-thereinfl =In 'the preferredform of t iisioove-iitsdewersgirface 3 constitutes a sealing,seat,-arid-upper;hisurface 4 constitutes a locking shoulder, the opening below thesealingqseat ibeing some what smaller than theo ening intheRmouth of thebottleflabove the ockingshou lder The seal consists prim arilyiiofa-'circular disk of metal 5, having an ,upturned flange 6 divided into anumber of secftions' t, 'Z',;by cuts, slits or openings 8,"' 8 ."1-'Inpractice ;I have obtained the best results by dividing the flange intofour sectionsasshowmabut--- any number of sections may be u'sedwithoutdeparting from the spirit of iny 'invention. From some or all ofthese-isectiofis' I project tongues or tabs 9, 9, which for eonvenien'cebe somewhat narrower than the section itself. iTo'thebottommf the metaldisk I prefer to affix apla'te or disk 10 of compressiblelimaterialsuclras cork, rubber or compositiomiwhitjh serv s to insure a moreperfect seam; *ito' "prevent-" the contents of the bottle"fromeoniingtiiiito contact with the metal. Thi rk d-isk i's of substantiallythe same diame las the metal disk, and both are slightly -s1tfalle'rififdia-ineter than the opening in tlie""-indtith' the bottle, butlarger than tl penin 'QT-he operation of myinvehtiblz 's lowsf The seal"is placed i'n tli hecof t he b ttle and res w eliaisei in 'Fig- 2, 'i tha perehe r p rri i 1. m1

the edge of the seat. Vertical pressure is then applied (as by a longer)until the cork dlsk is forced firm y down upon and slightly into theopening of the seat, as shown in Fig. 3. The flange is then forced or'bent into the groove so that it enga es with the locking shoulderthereof in. or er to firmly hold the seal down upon the sealing seat, inwhich position the seal will remain until the flange is forced or bentout of locking engagement with the groove. This bending of the flangemay be accomplished in various ways, such as by a secondary plungerexerting lateral pressure, or in some cases the mere folding over of theopening tongues, as hereinafter described, bends the flange suflicientlyfor this purpose. While of course all of the sections of the flange arebent at the same moment of time, each one bends independently of all theothers, so that if the groove is larger or deeper at one point thananother, the corresponding section will bend further at that'point thanthe other sections. For this reason irregularities in the size or sha eof the groove do not prevent the flange rom securing a tight hold, andfor this reason there is a greater leeway in making the'abottlesthanheretofore. fThe sealing of the bottle" is now com-- plete, but forconvenience and safety the tongues are folded back in a position wherethey are out of danger of contact,-yet can be easily reached and used tobend the sections out of their'locking engagement with the groove. Fig.4 shows a convenient position for the tongues. F or the purpose of makmgthe operation clear I have described these three steps as being taken insuccession, but it will be understood that in practice they arepractically simultaneous.

I prefer to use the cork disk for the reason that, being compressible,it accommodates itself to any irregularities in the surface or edge ofthe sealing seat and thus insures a perfect closure and seal.Furthermore, it will be apparent that when the cork disk is used itconstitutes the seal while the metal disk and flange act simply as aholder tokeep the seal firmly down in place.

hen it is desired to remove'the seal, any one of the tongues may bepressed inward with the fingers or any convenient instrument," untilthat particular section of the flange is forced or bent out of lockingengagement with the groove and its grip broken or overcome. -As alreadyexplained, this may be done with very little force, and after one or twoof these sections have been thus forced or bent out, the seal isweakened so that it may be readily removed by hand.

I do not confine myself to the'number, size, shape or location of thesetongues, as I consider it within the spirit of my invention to use anymeans for separately forcing out or breaking the grip of these severalsections of the flange.

By making the tongues or extensions of the sections narrow, the middleportion of each section is braced and the outer portions bend morereadily. The result of this is to cause the ends of each section toextend well under the locking shoulder, while the middle portion of eachsection will not extend quite so far under the locking shoulder.

Having described my invention, what I claim is:

I. A. closure comprising a disk provided with an upturned flange, saidflange being divided into sections adapted to be independently bent intolocking engagement with a groove in the neck of a bottle, and aplurality of said sections being provided with means for independentlybending each section outof locking engagement with said oove.

2. A closure comprising a disk provided with an upturned flange, saidflange being divided into sections adapted to be independently bent intolocking engagement with a groove in the neck of a bottle, and aplurality of said sections being provided with extensions forming tabsfor independently bending each section out of locking engagement withsaid groove.

3. A closure comprising a disk provided with an upturned flange, saidflange being divided into sections adapted to be independently bent intolocking engagement with a groove in the neck of a bottle, and aplurality of relatively narrow tongues, each integral with one of saidsections and adapted for independently forcing the said sectlon out oflocking engagement with said groove.

4. A closure comprising a holding member consisting of a metal diskprovided with an upturned flange, said flange being divided intosections adapted to be independently bent into locking engagement with agroove in the neck of a bottle, and a plurality of said sections beingprovided with means for independently bending each section out oflocking engagement with said groove, and a sealing member consisting ofa disk of compressible material.

ing the grip of said sections, and a sealing member held in sealingcontact with the seal ing surface.

-the neck-thereof, of a bottle seal comprising sealing surface by saidhol ding piece.

combination with a bottle having the locking. surface, and acompressible seal- 10 a se ling surface and a locking surface in ingmember held in sealin contact with the I a metal holding piece having ann turned In testimony whereof I have hereunto set I flange divided intosections bent into oeking my hand this 20th day of April, 1908. p vengagement with the locking surface in the CHARLES WINTER. bottle,-each'section being provided with an Witnesses: upper relatively narrow tongueadapted for 1 OLIVE B; KING,

forcing said sections out of engagement with GERTRUDE vW. MABTLING.

